Warmed over Antarctic Ice bridge ready to collapse

William Atkins
Saturday, 04 April 2009 17:54

Science - Climate

The ESA Observing the Earth website called “'Webcam’ from Space” contains updating images from the Envisat satellite as its Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument looks down upon the Wilkins Ice Shelf. [ESA: “Keeping an eye on Wilkins Ice Shelf”]

Take a look at these images--they're pretty interesting!

The ASAR instrument can detect changes in surface heights on the Earth, with the use of radar from its highly directional rotating antenna, with a precision of as little as a millimeter.

The ice bridge is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) in length and only a few kilometers in width.

Having formed over the past thousands of years as ice and snow build up, the Wilkins Ice Shelf has been steadily decreasing such formation for the past twenty years.

In fact, early last year, a 425 square-kilometer (164 square-mile) chunk of it broke off, and another smaller piece broke off in the middle of the year.

As warmer conditions continue to evade the South Pole of the Earth, the ice bridge has been exceptionally vulnerable to breaking up due to the warmer temperatures that are occurring in the Antarctic.

However, scientists continue to investigate to see if the warming global climate is directly to blame for the breakup of the Wilkins Ice Shelf.

For articles relating to the global climate change, along with additional information on this Wilkins Ice Shelf story, check out the CNN article "Large ice shelf expected to break from Antarctica."